The senator told Todd the uproar attending reports that Trump characterized much of the third world as a “shithole,” during a private meeting with lawmakers is destroying whatever good will might exist to achieve immigration reform.

“You can’t have an immigration compromise if everyone is out there calling the president a racist,” he said. “They’re actually destroying the setting… in which anything meaningful can happen on immigration.”

WATCH:

“Some people in the media have just gone completely bonkers with ad hominem on the president,” he said elsewhere in the interview.

Since The Washington Post first reported Trump’s remarks, a group of congressional Democrats led by Rep. Al Green of Texas vowed to force a vote on articles of impeachment.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California echoed Green’s remarks, and reiterated her longstanding support for Trump’s impeachment, calling the president “a hopeless and ignorant bigot.”

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